The Russellville Democrat., 1887-07-13
RUssELLvILLE. POPE CO.,. ARK. JULY B. 1887

every clerk has, he gets good deal more for pocket money. For instance, if he is clever he will manage to dine or take tea or perhaps both meals out every Sunday. On such occasions he also foregoes breakfast, with the result that he saves Is 103d, or in the year q 17s Cd. In fact every meal that he saves, and he watches every opportunity for doing so, is so much in his pocket for sundries, extra flnery or saving fund.
 't0h, forgot to say how he manages to dine for eightpence. Under ordinary circumstances he buys plate of beef for sixpenee, potatoes penny, thick slice of bread penny, waiter-he must never be forgotten penny That's ninepence, you say. Certainly, but to offset that, three days week he>will go to an a la mode beef-house, where he will get plate of delicious beef stew for fourpence, bread penny, potatoes penny. waiter penny; in all, seven pence-do you see? These Ia mode beef-houses, by the way, are frequented by the richest men in the city, so the poor clerks cheap dinner is in no way mira dig.
 'I think" continued the merchant, "that in my time l have employed hundreds of young men as clerks and have watched their ways. The ambitious ones, a small minority, either rise some how or other to important positions with wages, say, of two or at most three pounds week, or else find their way into some more prosperous undertaking The majority, however, remain at a pound until either shabbiness, lack of smartness or marriage drives them to the wall or probably the workhouse.
 ''In his early years his ways are most interesting. He is up to all manner of dodges to save his clothes or to seize what he considers to be honest per- ] quisites in the shape of odd sheets of note paper, pens, envelopes, etc, for private correspondence at home. He saves his boots by putting on list slip pers in the office; he wears an old rag l of coat: he ties a little apron over his waStcoat so as not to hurt it when l leaning against desk, and of course l he takes off his cufs-I think cuffs i were invented for clerks When, how 1 ever, he arrives in the morning, or goes out for his midday lunch, he is simply lovely to look at--that is, the careful and tidy fifty-pound clerk. His tall hat-every city clerk in Lon don wears a tall hat-glistens in the sun. His collar is up to his ears and his cuffs cover his knuckles and the rest of him is in full harmony. Now, there you have him and how he can | live. Let the same man have ten, twenty or thirty pounds more and he marries. If he remains single he is regarded in his particular circle as a bachelor of opulence, and he really is.
 .'Now, as to the social position of these men. They nearly all belong to what is known as the middle class. They regard shopmen as persons be- meath their station, and probably their l fathers were unsuccessful doctors, law 1 yers, officers of the army and navy or something else in the great community of poorly-paid professional men in England. But you just put an ad- vertisement in m English paper for a clerk at pound a week, and l will 1 guarantee that you have several hun 1 dred answers. once knew an auctioneer and surveyor in Great George street, Westminster, who q few years ago advertised for q copying clerk; salary one pound per week. Answers came by the thousand from naval and military officers and fathers of families, begging for the position to save them from starvation. "--Phitadet- l 9)tia Press.